City of San Diego v. BARRATT AMERICAN INC.

In this eminent domain action plaintiff the City of San Diego (City) condemned 5.04 acres of real property (the taken property) within the North City Future Urbanizing Area (NCFUA) to construct the middle segment of the State Route 56 freeway (the Project), an east-west freeway that traverses the NCFUA. The taken property was part of a 38.47-acre parcel of property owned by defendants Barratt American Incorporated and others (Owners). The central issue below was how to value the taken property disregarding the influence of the Project on the value, as required by Code of Civil Procedure section 1263.330.

City asserted below the taken property should be valued based on its “agricultural use” zoning (the zoning in place at the time it became probable the taken property would be acquired for the Project) because the proper method for disregarding the influence of the Project on the value of the taken property would assume the Project was abandoned on the valuation date (the abandoned Project construct). City asserted that as of the valuation date there was no probability the taken property would be upzoned in the near future because on the abandonment of the Project there…